Corpus by Rory Clements

          This is quite a confusing book - not helped by the fact I was reading a second book at the same time that was set in a similar time period and dealt with similar themes so I sometimes got a tad confused with the cast of characters.  They certainly inhabited the same rarefied airspace so that isn't surprising.

However, the biggest problem I had was Corpus has such a large cast of disparate characters, in many countries and they are introduced at seeming random into the plot.  Just as soon as you think you have a handle on what is happening than a new chapter starts and suddenly we are in Munich, Berlin, Spain, Moscow, Rural England, Windsor and eventually back to the comfort of Cambridge.  Not that there is much comfort to be found by the Cam, certainly not for Tom Wilde or Lydia Morris.  The juxtaposition works well but it does mean you need to keep your wits about you throughout the book and this isn't always easy as it does have a tendency to become bogged down in minutiae from time to time.

I did like that you are never exactly sure what each character's agenda actually is.  Are they a Communist, a Fascist, a Patriotist or a bit of all three or playing all three against each other whilst behoving to belong to each.  Lots of complex intrigue and tricky little sub-plots here from Baldwin, Stalin and Hitler led factions with a little bit of White Russian Rebellion thrown in for good measure.  1936 certainly sounds like an exciting time but I am sure it was much more mundane, even in the higher echelons of power than it is fictionalised into being.

The main characters are well-developed but once you move away from Tom, Lydia and Philip Eaton everyone else is a little bit of a two dimensional attempt.  The nearest we get to fully formed is Comrade Kholtov and even he smacks a little of caricature.  Fortunately, I had read the second in the Wilde series first so I know how good the writing from this author can be and I know that I will be eagerly waiting for the third installment.

My recommendation would be read this book and persevere with the series - book two is much tauter but Book One does give some added insights into Mr Wilde, Ms Morris and Mr Eaton that did give me a lightbulb moment about their actions in Nucleus.
       

Her Mother's Daughter by Alice Fitzgerald

          Her Mother's Daughter is a very emotional book told from the perspective of two generations of one family - the mother damaged by her childhood and the daughter damaged by her mother's childhood.  The insight by the author in to the events themselves and their knock on effects in Josephine's adult life are well thought through and are revealed to us piecemeal by Josephine herself.  We also get to hear her daughter, Claire's, perspective on how her mother's sudden mood swings affect her daily life.

This book serves as a reminder that what we say and how we conduct ourselves is noticed and felt by our children in more ways than we can ever imagine.  The two voices are entirely distinct and clear throughout the book, my only real reservation was that Claire sometimes felt like a device to show just how far Josephine was sinking beneath the weight of her trauma rather than an individual in her own right.

The relationship between Claire and her brother Thomas is entirely believable, veering between the desire to protect him from the worst of her mother's anger and then being completely infuriated with him herself.  The natural jealousy between the siblings is well captured and even though we never get to hear Thomas's voice we do get a sense of the little boy through Claire's eyes.  Tellingly, we never really get more than a fleeting glimpse of the children from Josephine, she is too locked in her own past to really engage with the present in anything but the most superficial way.

It felt to me that most of the tale is told by Claire but this could be simply because I enjoyed her sections so much more than those written from Josephine's perspective.  Her innocent and yet somehow knowing voice reaches out to you and pulls you deep in to the story and refuses to let you go with her simple joy in sweets and her burgeoning self-image issues generated by her mother's barbed comments and her own pleasure in being told that she looks just like her mother who is acknowledged to be a beauty.

The enduring strength of the relationship between Michael and Josephine comes as a relief.  No matter how frustrated they get somehow they have managed to cleave together, even if sometimes it is just their upbringing keeping them together to "save face" they seem to power through it.  No quick throwing in of the towel when things get bumpy.  Not enough is made of Michael's strength in holding the family together as best he can with two young children who are old enough to see the cracks and question the flimsy paper over them whilst supporting a traumatised wife who cannot move past the horrible events in her formative years.

In some respects this is a very uncomfortable read but one that I raced through and was unwilling to put down.  It also made me very grateful for my secular upbringing and that there were no predators lieing in wait for me to wreak havoc with my mental wellbeing down the years.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
       

White Lies & Wishes by Cathy Bramley

This was such a warm read and I felt that it managed to steer away from tried and tested stereotypes.  Jo, Sarah and Carrie read as though they are real people, they make the same snap judgements as the rest of us and they can be fun and larky and then miserable and argumentative the next and not just because they are women, but, because they are people.  They struggle with the same things we all do at various times in our lives and despite their disparate personalities their friendship does not feel forced on to the page but like it has evolved naturally with time.  I loved how they lied to themselves about what they really wanted from life, afraid to even admit to themselves what it was that would make them feel happy and fulfilled - I am sure that no matter whether you are male or female once you get to a certain age you realise that you have been lieing to yourself and then have the crisis of admitting your real heart's desire to yourself even if it does not fit in with family, friends or even societal expectations.  This book gives you "permission" to be true to yourself.

I thought it could have been tough going as I started reading this only 4 days after my Mother-In-Law passed away and this book starts with a funeral tea.  Fortunately, even this minefield was navigated with a warm humour that steered me through the rather dodgy territory and made me interested in the three women that were so different and yet each equally alone and floundering in their own way.  I didn't so much read this book as completely absorb it whilst playing chicken with my e-reader battery and the clock.  I am pleased to report the battery managed to last until the end of the book or we could have seen a decidedly matronly middle-aged woman throwing a tantrum fit only for Zac.

The three main characters are

Jo - Single business woman who is desperately trying to find a way to keep the family business going to the expense of her social and romatic life.

Sarah - Married with a young baby (the aforementioned Zac) and desperately trying to achieve partnership at work and balance her home life with her husband who is reluctantly providing the child care.

Carrie - Homemaker extraordinaire who can only find comfort in vast quantities of junk food and refuses to believe her husband when he says he finds her attractive.

They don't sound like much summed up like that do they.  However, they are rich characters that meld together well and have genuinely multi-faceted personalities.  Admittedly, some of the situations they find themselves in are a little far fetched but this is fiction after all and we do read for a little bit of a vicarious thrill.  It is a very cosy book with each character realising things about herself that help her move on to happiness but it is handled in such a way that you do keep wanting to read just the next chapter until suddenly you have completed the book and feel a little bereft.

Please do not read this book on your daily commute, you are going to miss your stop and likely find yourself at the terminus by accident!

Defy The Worlds by Claudia Gray

          I found this to be so much better than it's prequel Defy The Stars and my relief at this was immense as I had been waiting for this one since reading the initial chapters.  I did start off apprehensive as it all rather fizzled out at the end of the first book and I could not see how the tale of Abel and Noemi could be resurrected in a way which would hold my interest.

Fortunately the sub-plots in this book do not detract from the main storyline and the whole meshes together a lot better with one feeding into the other so you do keep turning the pages to find out exactly what has happened.  The science fiction is much sounder in basis this time and does not feel quite as much as though it is borrowing from other authors as the previous book did.  It now feels more like a fully realised universe rather than disparate sections and, on reflection of the context of the story, this may well have been intentional.

Abel and Noemi haven't changed too much and despite the strong romantic themes within the book they do not feel overwhelming and seem to compliment the tale rather than overwhelm it.  The sense of peril is well defined and builds to nice little crescendos of action several times throughout the book which feel wholly appropriate.  The corruption of power seems to be a strong theme within these pages and it is well executed and at no point slips in to parody or sermonising which I have found to be a common failure of similar treatments of this topic.

This was a good read, with strong characterisations and a free flowing plot that does keep you gripped.  The ending was a little weak and doesn't entirely set you up for aching for the next installment to come out but I will still be eagerly waiting for it.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
       

Ragdoll by Daniel Cole

Not bad as procedural's go but rather too much about "damaged" detectives making their own rules to catch a killer for my liking - it has been done so often that it all feels a little trite and unfortunately this book gets sucked down in to that accepted trope.  Whilst the murders themselves are inventive and a little different from the usual shootings and stabbings they still feel a little mechanical somehow.  We have no basis for the crimes until very late in the book and that feels more tagged on than a pre-planned plot, I don't really understand why it feels this way as it is flagged quite early in the book when dealing with Wolf being sectioned in St. Ann's psychiatric wing with Joel.

Apart from Edmunds most of the characters are pretty unlikeable.  Baxter and Wolf in particular seem to have no redeeming characteristics and are all about "the job" and battling their personal demons very unsuccessfully.  Wolf's ex-wife, Andrea, is not particularly likeable either and falls in to the story at all costs journalist type; admittedly we do have moments of almost contrition for her worst excesses but then she returns to work and compounds them.  I also found it very far fetched that after commiting grievous bodily harm on a suspect that any police officer, no matter what their rank, would be allowed back in to the force in any capacity, let alone back in their previous role.

There are some nice pieces of humour within the book, but of a decidedly black nature and they are no doubt intended to give us a ringside seat to the camaraderie of the police force.  Unfortunately, they are few and far between and are not evocative enough - Lynda La Plante does the "humanisation" of the police so much better.  The story itself is pretty stop - start and their is insufficient flow to keep you turning the pages past bedtime, putting it down is all too easy if something more interesting comes along.  The denouement is rushed and there is little tension built although that is achieved with the murders of the Mayor and Rana it is sadly missing towards the end.

Not a bad book but not one that makes you cheer the protagonists on in their efforts to capture the killer.  The reasoning behind the murders is woolly at best and the leaps of imagination taken by Wolf and his colleagues are not real feeling in the slightest - there is only so far your gut can take you.  Maybe this is why Edmunds was my favoured character in the book - little angst and a good grasp of research and investigative techniques to secure a conviction; even if he does bend the rules by using his old Fraud IT connections to move his theory along.

Young Bess by Margaret Irwin

At the moment I have a bit of a "thing" for the Tudors and have been watching a lot of documentaries dealing with the wives of Henry VIII and the fortunes of his offspring.  I was recommended to read Phillippa Gregory but spotted this one on sale and thought I would give it a go.  I have to admit, it was money well spent and I was surprised to discover how long ago this book was originally published (1944) as some of what we think of as modern sensibilities are overlaid on to the telling of the tale.

Clearly based in a good dose of fact (going of what I have seen on my recent documentary splurge and a little judicious internet searching) with just enough licence taken with the events to make for a fascinating read.  Certainly no effort is made to project Elizabeth as a simpering princess or a wily-woman just waiting for her chance.  Instead, Elizabeth is at first a relatively innocent child who is just getting to grips with the machinations of those surrounding her when her father passes who rapidly develops a sharp political instinct which will see her well through the years to come.  I also enjoyed the fact that some reference is made to the numerous rumours circulated at the time that when Elizabeth went on "progress" to remote parts of her Kingdom she was really going to give birth to yet another Tudor illegitimate.  Whether the rumours started as early as her being 14/15 I have no idea but they certainly were plentiful during her actual 40+ year reign.

You do need to pay attention as there is a varied cast here and not always called by the same name with some characters referring to others by affectionate diminutives only and others by their titles and yet more by their actual birth name.  Compound this with the constant political upheavals and wranglings as each Lord tries to advance his cause whilst supposedly acting as part of a court of Regents for the young Edward as he grows towards Kingship and it does get a little bit confusing if you try and gallop through.  The turns of phrase also smack well of what we know of the era from extant documentary evidence and particularly in the surviving journals of Royalty and those who surrounded them.  The small sections written in the vernacular where wonderful to read as an evolution of our language.

If this is an era that interests you then this is a wonderful fictionalised account of the years during which Henry VIII dies and his young son is still only a King in name only, with all the power lodging with his Uncles.  Although much of the book does concern the young Elizabeth in the second half there is a lot of information about what is happening at the Court and in other countries during this time period.

Once I've caught up a bit on my reading I will certainly be purchasing the remaining books in the trilogy.

The Void by J. D. Horn

The third of this series of books is perhaps the best yet, from a pure fantasy point of view.  The Line is much more prominent here with less real bickering between the families and the anchors and more time seemingly spent on Mercy and her unborn child and how the revelations of Peter's origins will affect them all.  To me the writing felt more intricate with less of "this happened and then this happened because of it", things are certainly more convoluted in this book and we learn so much more about the purported origins of the line.  The action is unrelenting and the only thing I was a little narked with was constantly being told that only a few months have passed during the telling of the tale from Book One to now.

The scene setting is extraordinary and you really get a sense of the locations in this volume that makes them seem almost the other side of Mother Jilo's Haint Blue Room.  Maybe this is just the accumulation of the knowledge gained from the previous two installments but I felt that this book moved everything up a level whilst stepping beyond the fairly straightforward tale of witches in Savannah and their rather complicated entanglements.

I did wonder how certain plot points would be resolved, particularly with Maisie but the way in which they are eked out and not telegraphed is really rather enjoyable.  The twist at the end was certainly unexpected and left me eager to reach for book number four but as that is the last in this series I am rationing myself and will have to wait at least another week before indulging.

I would caution that these books are read in order else little here will make sense, particularly at the end of the tale where you will be wondering who on earth is that and why have they made an appearance at the end.  I know some readers felt this was a let down from the previous two but I thoroughly enjoyed it, maybe because of the fantastical steps taken within the plot and the resolutions this has caused at this point.  The writing is vivid and sucks you right in to the damp heat and makes you feel like somehow you are now part of The Line.